Nearly 200 households with ten or more children are costing the state £2million a year in housing benefit.

An estimated 380,000 households with more than two children rely on the handouts to pay their rent.

Some 42,000 of these have more than five children, receiving on average £7,500 for their housing costs. And 190 families have ten or more children, receiving on average £10,526 in housing benefit.

Living on the state: At least one parent in 40,000 families with five or more children is claiming a welfare payout from the Government in addition to child benefit

Families with three or more children
cost taxpayers some £2.3billion in housing benefits. The government has
vowed to cut this back by imposing a cap on the maximum amount that can
be claimed in welfare to £26,000 a year.

Cabinet ministers have also triggered
controversy by urging welfare recipients to consider whether they can
afford to have more children.

Official figures show that families with nine children receive more than £11,000 a year in housing benefit, or £925 a month.

The average family spends £606 a month
on rent or mortgage payments, a third less than is being paid out in
housing benefit to these large families. The payments also go to
families or individuals in work but on low incomes.

No of children

Families receiving out of work benefits

Jobseekers' allowance

Incapacity Benefit/Severe Disablement Allowance

Income Support

Employment and Support Allowance

Pension Credit

5

25,980

4,610

4,750

18,340

2,020

240

6

8,780

1,620

1,690

6,230

630

100

7

3,200

570

680

2,290

240

40

8

1,080

180

270

770

90

10

9

360

60

90

240

40

10

10

130

30

30

90

10

11

30

10

30

12

10

10

10

13

10

Separate figures released this week
showed that 40,000 households with five or more children where at least
one parent is on welfare cost taxpayers a massive £150million in child
benefit alone.

The overall burden on the state of
super-size families where one parent is on a jobless or sickness benefit
is at least £350million – not counting housing benefit.

Some 180 families on jobless benefits have ten or more children, and ten families have an astonishing 13 or more.

The figures were released by the Department for Work and Pensions under a Freedom of Information request from the Sun newspaper.

They cover families where at least one
person is claiming jobseeker’s allowance, incapacity benefit, severe
disablement allowance, income support, employment and support allowance
or pension credit.

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain
Duncan Smith warned in October that families where no one is working
could face benefit cuts if they chose to have more children.

George Osborne has ordered that the
welfare bill be cut by a further £10billion, on top of the £18billion
reductions already under way. The Chancellor warned that parents
claiming unemployment benefit could lose child benefit, income support
or tax credits if they had another child.

The move triggered controversy but Mr
Osborne insisted that working families had to make choices, so the same
should apply to those on out-of-work welfare.

He said: ‘When you are in work and you
want another child, you consider the financial cost. When you are on
benefits you automatically get extra money.’